Manguin lifts the lot of Modern

GIVEN the fiscal disadvantages involved, Christie’s and Sotheby’s won’t usually be looking to Paris as a venue for sales of Modern art, but Christie’s (buyer’s premium 20.93%) had a modest French Collection of Post-Impressionist & Modern Paintings and Drawings on offer on September 28 that fared well enough, with 40 lots from 43 sold for a hammer total of €1.04m (£650,000) with seven per cent bought in by lot and just two per cent by value.

Jeantet’s assertion that French buyers were “very present in the saleroom and on the telephone” was not reflected by their total absence from a top ten listing that included six trade buys. A Japanese gallery purchased a late Utrillo Rue de Banlieue, 22in x 2ft 2in (55 x 65cm), for €60,000 (£37,500), while the American trade claimed both Camoin’s Coup de Mistral dans le Port de St-Tropez, 21in x 2ft 8in (54 x 81cm) for €46,500 (£29,100), and a 1925 Loiseau Vue de Fécamp, 21in x 2ft 2in (54 x 66cm), for a top-estimate €44,000 (£27,500).

American private buyers were also active, claiming Morisot’s sketchy Devant la Toilette, 22 x 18in (55 x 46cm), for €39,000 (£24,400) as well as the Manguin.